Sempre
by Air Angel32
Summary: She thought that he would soon grow tired of wasting his time. She never thought of the possibility that all he had was time.


Sempre

Summary: She thought that he would soon grow tired of wasting his time. She never thought of the possibility that all he had was time.

She thought that by just avoiding him she would be safe. He represented all things dark and she couldn't handle it. She was in love with another man, and she would never betray the one she loved for someone who was so intense, so terrifying. She knew that in time he would get over her. You only had one life; he would soon realize wasting time on someone who wasn't going to reciprocate was not how he wanted to spend his time.

But he was never going to let her avoid him for long. She was the light in his dark world, and he needed her to function in the world he lived in. She was caught up in her childhood crush, part of his family. She was in love with a man who didn't love her, and he knew that if he just bade his time, she would come to him, realize that he was the one she needed. In time, he would have her. She thought that he would soon grow tired of wasting his time. She never thought of the possibility that all he had was time.

~Sognare~

_She could feel her back pressing against the wall of the hotel room, and a man was pressed against her front. She could feel every contour of his toned body pressed up against her, skin on skin that her thin, midnight blue nightgown wasn't covering. But it wasn't passion she was feeling. It was fear. Fear of who the man was. Of what the man was. Fear from the incredible bond she felt with him that she didn't want. Fear that the man she loved was going to find out. _

_He was talking to her, but she could not understand what he was saying, her mind was too preoccupied with too many other variables of what was going on. She completely ignored him, up until he kissed her on the forehead. Then her mind went blank, everything evacuating except his lips on her skin. She shut her eyes and receded into her mind, where he was waiting. _

"_What are you doing in here?"_

"_When you find you soulmate you connect with them on all levels. Physical, mental, emotional, in any way possible. You are my souldmate, and I will wait until the ends of the earth for you. I love you, and soon, you will come running to me Sakura. Soon you will leave him, and you will be mine. I will wait for you forever. "_

Sakura shot up, sweat running down her body. Her heart was running, and for a moment she felt like she couldn't breathe. But the moment passed as soon as it came, and as it faded, her heart slowed. Lying back to her pillow she sighed. She had just woken up, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to fall back asleep. She hadn't any other night she had woken up like this. She searched her mind as to what woke her up, but came up blank. She remembered having a dream; she remembered the emotions that came with it. She remembered fear, and intensity, but then she remembered the love and care that came after. She remembered feeling completely and utterly safe. But she couldn't remember anything about the dream.

"I suppose it will come back to me at some point if it was important," she said to herself factitiously. She somehow knew it was important, but she had yet to remember it. Not the past 4 years of having it, since her 18th birthday.

She looked at the clock, the digital numbers reading 5:54 am, and sighed again. It was bad enough having to wake up at 6:15 in the morning as it was, she would appreciate all the sleep that she could get. She threw her covers off, standing up and shuffled to the bathroom. Her mind was wide awake, but her body was slow to follow.

'That's the fourth time this week that I've woken up feeling like this but no memory of what caused it.'

She turned the sink on, throwing water on her face. She looked at herself in the mirror, taking in the sight and quietly mourning how bad she looked. She looked as exhausted as she felt, dark circles marring her pale face. She was a naturally pale person, but today her skin looked sallow, unhealthy. Her usually vibrant pink hair was limp, and dull. Between her internship, full-time job, and school, she was getting a lack of sleep as it was. And now that all of her sleep was being taken over by dreams she couldn't even remember.

She went back into her room after brushing her teeth and threw on some workout clothing. It was the middle of the semester, which meant midterms and term papers and group projects. And while Sakura usually thrived under high stress situations, sometimes she hit her breaking point, and when she did, she just needed to go and work it out. She had class instead of her internship today, so she took her time jogging the 4 blocks it was from her apartment to the on campus gym.

She finished her work successfully out an hour and a half later, body dripping with sweat but carrying none of the stress that she had been feeling before. After a quick shower and quickly changing into her school clothing, she walked to her first class with a little more bounce in her step than earlier.

Sliding into her seat next to her best friend, Sakura decided that she could maybe get through the rest of the week without imploding.

"Forehead you look like shit."

Then again, maybe she was kidding herself.

"Thanks Pig. At least I can compare myself to you and look a little more normal."

Yamanaka Ino snorted into her latte, and looked at Sakura, "Seriously, you look like you haven't slept in years. Like, I understand that you need this internship to potentially get a job after graduation, and you need to work to actually be able to stay in school, but you are running yourself ragged."

"Thanks for the concern Pig, but I'm fine. It's just these stupid dreams. I can't get any real sleep. I keep waking up feeling all these emotions but I have no idea why. I used to get them all the time when I turned 18, but they kinda died down a bit when I got into school. They just recently started back up and they are almost every night. I wake up sweating with my heart racing and I feel like even when I'm asleep I'm not really sleeping."

"But you can't remember what happens in the dream at all? That sounds awful."

"God you're telling me. I am going insane. But I can't focus on that right now. I need to focus on this week. I have two tests today, one Wednesday and three papers due Friday at midnight. I work almost every night and my internship is driving me into the ground. I have three major cases this week alone, as well as my boss's boss is coming in."

"Isn't that Sasuke's uncle? That really young guy? I thought he usually does work from outside of the office?"

"And his brother. They own the firm together. They are the youngest to own their own firm in the country. And as for doing work outside of the office, they usually does, but since these are such high profile cases they are coming in until they are finished up to their satisfaction. They're going to be here until further notice, watching all of us, which means I really need to impress them, especially Sasuke's older brother, if I am ever going to get their approval."

"Why especially his older brother? Don't they co-own?"

"Well yeah, but the older brother is an ice queen. Everything has to be done to perfection and he;s the one who is more likely to disapprove of me."

"Fuck babe, the world has it out for you this week. I have everything due with you, but that's it, I was able to ask off most of the nights to study this week. If you need anything let me know," Ino sympathized as she pushed a hot caramel latte toward Sakura who looked on in joy.

"At least next week is break. I don't know how much more I could handle. Are you working tonight?" Sakura asked, happily sipping her latte while sighing in relief. Soon enough the caffeine would hit her system and she would be able to function, her workout high already fading.

"Yeah, from 10 to close, you?"

"Happy hour to close. I have rent coming up and all of the stupid clothing I had to buy for my internship really drained by bank account," Sakura smiled ruefully.

Ino let out a short laugh as the professor walked in with the tests, "You know you loved the shopping, even if not the buying," Sakura grinned sheepishly, proving her right. "Anyway, good luck on the test. You are the smartest person I know, you'll make it through."

Sakura laughed, "Thanks, you'll do fine too, I mean, you made into this program with me. There has to be something in that head of yours."

Ino shot her a dirty glare but the laughter in her eyes gave her away.

The professor stood in the front starting to pass out tests, "You know the drill, if I catch you cheating, no questions asked, you are out of the program. Good luck."

Two tests and three coffees later, Sakura stood in front of the library. She had three term papers due on Friday and while two out of three were completely written, they weren't going to edit themselves. She was meeting with her study group to edit each other before finishing writing her third one.

Sakura was on the accelerated track program for the Konoha Law School. It gets you through law school in two years and then sets you up with one of their partner firms for internships that last a semester for the last year that you would have been in school. It was highly exclusive and up to the very last day you could still get kicked out for not having 'up to standard' grades. How both she and her best friend had made it in she would never know.

Walking into the library with yet another coffee in her hand, Sakura went in a sat in between Ino and Sasuke. Because the program was so small, the students were always split into cohorts. Each cohort was constantly with each other, studying together, taking their classes together, so on so forth. For the first semester they always try to keep people who knew each other previously together, letting them acclimate before completely switching it up and putting completely new people together the next semester.

"Hello Pig, Sasuke, how did you think the tests went today?" Sakura asked, happily sipping her coffee in between phrases.

"I thought that for our first law school tests they could have gone a lot worse, they were challenging, but nothing that was unbearable."

"Hn."

Sakura translated that as agreement with Ino. For as long as she had known Sasuke she had been attracted to him. Unfortunately for that same amount of time he had been shooting her down. At first it was all about his looks, and then it was about how he rejected her. She never did take losing very well. But eventually, after spending most of college in the same friend group and always hanging out with each other, it morphed into something much stronger, and much deeper.

"Well we should get started on these papers. I don't want to have to worry about them for the rest of the week." Right as she stopped speaking Sasuke's phone went off.

Looking at the name on the front he scowled before answering, "Hello?"

Sakura could hear the deep baritone voice on the other side of the phone. And it sent butterflies through her stomach while also sending chills down her spine. She knew she recognized it from somewhere, but she just couldn't place where.

"Sakura…helloooo. Are you still behind that giant forehead?"

Sakura started, looking at Ino and grinning sheepishly, "Sorry Pig, I got lost in my thoughts. How about we get started on these essays and Sasuke can catch up when he finishes with his phone call."

"Sounds good! I think that I have a really strong intro and first few pages, but my last two pages, as well as my conclusion feel a little shaky so I really need help with that."

Meanwhile, Sasuke was still on the phone when Sakura started talking to Ino. Working hard to get the papers edited and finished so that she could go home before she had to go to work.

"Hey guys, I can't decide what to do for my conclusion, every time I try to write it I just get blocked and am unable to actually get a good one down. Is there anyway anyone can stay with me and help me finish it? I promise I'll owe you big time."

And there went the rest of her night until work. A reason the cohort system worked so well was the complete loyalty you formed with your cohort. When a group member asked for help you went and you helped them until you absolutely could not. It had helped Sakura in the past and she knew it would help her in the future.

"Sure Sayuki, we can stay. I have work at 7pm, but I can stay until then," Sakura said, inwardly sighing in resignation, but outwardly putting on a reassuring smile.

Three hours later Sakura stood in front of the bar she worked at, _Shameless_. It wasn't somewhere she would recommend working at, but everyone went there, which meant the tips were fantastic. And these tips were how she paid her rent most of the time.

The bar was an old car garage. The company went down years previously and very soon after a young entrepreneur saw an opportunity for a place for all of the college and law students to hang out, and seized it. The outside of the building itself wasn't anything spectacular, but the inside were why college kids flocked to it. There was a dance floor, small enough to make the dancing intimate but wide enough to give a large berth to the really drunk guy who thinks he can dance. There were hanging chairs and booths surrounding tables where one could look over the dance floor. There was a giant stage on the opposite wall where every now and then the bar would act as a venue to concerts and events put on by the schools. There were cages surrounding the stage for various professional dancers and the really adventurous.

But the main part of the bar, of any bar really, was the actual bar itself. Exactly in the middle of the bar, between the stage and the door, was a square bar, only accessible from a small lift-table on the right side. It reached to the top of the ceiling and every inch possible was covered with alcohol. Sake, beer, wine, liquor, you name it they had it. And the bartenders were more performers than anything. All bartenders were trained dancers and trained in show bartending. Their performances were the highlight of the evening and no one wanted to miss it.

Sakura sighed, ducking under the counter to get in and stretched. Technically happy hour starts at around 6, but she wasn't expecting really anyone until at least 9. And even then, it was a Monday night during hell week with tests and papers and projects everywhere. Not a whole lot of people would be out. Which was exactly what she wanted. Settling in for a long night, she got to work.

A/N: So this is my first story in like, years. I'm really excited for it but I am also kinda nervous. I struggled somewhat, just because it was kind of dry in some places but I really wanted to explain her life and who she was before diving into everything that happens. Hopefully it's not too dull and you'll want to read the next chapter!


End file.
